New York

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Lovely to be in a place where you don't have to wear a scarf in summer. We were so tired out from the flights that we couldn't get up the energy to order in the nice looking organic-everything cafe we were seated in and ended up ordering $1 pizza from a hole-in-the-wall type place. It was absolutely delicious. Then we came back to the hotel and realised that ''Happy Hour" included free food (ish) and family-orientated drinks. The laundry was free, so Simon stationed himself down there for the night and chatted with the other guys also on laundry duty. He might have popped into the bar at some stage.

The people who had initially inspired us to visit New York were out of the country, ironically, so we had made plans for touristy things to occupy ourselves. We fitted in visits to the Empire State Building, the Intrepid Museum of Air Space and Sea, Subway, Central Park, Times Square and some much needed shopping. We could have spent much more time in Central Park - another place to come back to on some future visit. I loved the feel of being in a big city, but the rest of the family didn't really like it and none of us liked the smog (that's one thing that London get right more and more often these days - less smog since the congestion charge was introduced).

The Empire State Building was a work of art, and the view from it was good considering the smog. On the way back we discovered Bryant Park, which was a great place to sit and have morning tea - especially once we discovered the reading areas. I wish we had something like that in Wellington - maybe books in a shady place near the library in Civic Square.

The Intrepid Museum of Air Space and Sea turned out to be worth the walk. It's located on an ex-aircraft carrier and contains the Space Shuttle Enterprise. There was an exhibition on the Hubble telescope and other space photography, as well as heaps of aeroplane, helicopter and submarine associated stuff. I bought yet another tea towel, something I will need therapy about when we get back. I commented that we will never need to buy another tea towel, to which Nathan responded "so stop buying tea towels". It's worth considering.

We all loved Central Park. It was fun to run around, we searched for penguins in the Zoo, the street entertainers were good and it was cooler than in the concrete. We watched a man feed and squirrel that was acting cute a little bit of his sandwich. It quickly switched to seek and destroy mode, which was not quite so charming to watch. We were fleeced by a group of tumblers who gave a crowd-jumping performance.

Wang, thank you for the recommendation of Century21. The one we went to near Central Park was quite small so we couldn't find the carry on bag I was looking for (the specs for carry on in the US are bigger than NZ link), but we did find Rockports for Simon and other stuff for Samantha to look like a clothes-horse in. I found a new handbag to replace the one I bought when Nathan was one.

Nearby was a small square with shaded seats and a small farmers market. Yum. In fact, most of New York was all about food. There was a gym in the hotel but I didn't quite get around to using it. Bad bad bad.

The heat of New York turned out to be good training for what was to come in Maine.

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